Proposal would make dormitory housing out of Denver office units

DENVER — An architecture and design firm is hoping to turn thousands of square feet of empty office space in Denver into dormitory-style residential housing.

“Across the country we have a lot of inventory that is not well suited for the kinds of things that we need right now,” Wes LeBlanc said. “And that's especially the case in Denver.”

LeBlanc is the strategy and analytics director for Gensler, the company behind the study and proposal.

Statistics show nearly 30% of downtown Denver office space is now vacant, as people shift away from traditional downtown office workspaces in a post-pandemic world.

Conversations surrounding the conversion from office to residential are nothing new, but Gensler’s plan differs from what’s been offered in Denver in the past.

Traditional conversions can be pricey, with plumbing and other infrastructure changes that are needed to provide individual units with water.

Under Gensler’s proposal, tenants would share kitchen and bathroom areas, while living in small units outfitted with a bed, desk, and half-fridge.

Outfitting each floor with one centralized bathroom area would cut down on costs significantly, according to LeBlanc.

“What it does is it reduces the actual cost by about a quarter to a half of what a traditional residential conversion would be, and those are savings that we can pass on to the renters,” he said.

LeBlanc said between 40 and 50 people could live on each floor, with rent set at roughly $750 per person. That’s significantly lower than the average rent in Denver, which Gensler calculates at $1,771.

Denver recently launched a new adaptive reuse program, which has identified three potential downtown buildings that are now in a pilot program for potential conversion.

“There are a lot of folks looking at some of the challenges in downtown Denver and how to address them and this could be part of that solution,” said LeBlanc.